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Martin Rundkvist's blog. Archaeology, skepticism, Sweden. And books and music and stuff.
Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Society, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
November 30, 2009
Category: Gaming
[More blog entries about Sweden, photography, manor; Närke, Askersund, foto, herrgård.] I was headed for a lonely November weekend with wife & daughter abroad and son with his mom. So I rounded up three friends (though Paddy K was kept...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 1 Comments •
November 27, 2009
Category: Archaeology
Current Archaeology's December issue offers one of the mag's signature feature write-ups of new books, this time The Complete Ice Age: how climate change shaped the world by Brian Fagan et al. Interesting stuff, where the following passage on the...
Posted by Martin R at 8:34 AM • 11 Comments •
November 26, 2009
Category: Archaeology
In Lund I saw the outline of a very early church foundation picked out in the overlying street pavement near the Cathedral.
Posted by Martin R at 1:49 PM • 20 Comments •
November 25, 2009
Category: Archaeology
A few months ago I finished a book manuscript on elite settlement and political geography in Östergötland, one of Sweden's core provinces, in the period AD 375-1000. In countries that have experienced an infestation of Romans, this era is known...
Posted by Martin R at 8:07 AM • 8 Comments •
November 24, 2009
Category: Archaeology
In Helsinki a few weeks back I made the acquaintance of my charming colleague Wesa Perttola. Now he has made excellent distribution maps for my forthcoming Östergötland book. Above is the scatter of 9th and 10th century elite indicators...
Posted by Martin R at 9:19 AM • 3 Comments •
November 21, 2009
Category: Biology
If yeast can make alcohol directly out of starch, why bother malting the barley before making beer?
Posted by Martin R at 8:21 AM • 17 Comments •
November 18, 2009
Category: Humour
My 6-y-o daughter usually sleeps really solidly over in her room and is not easily woken by sounds she's accustomed to. But this morning she told me over breakfast, "Dad, you and Mom made the weirdest noises last night and...
Posted by Martin R at 4:00 PM • 9 Comments •
November 17, 2009
Category: NOIBN
I'm enjoying one of my infrequent laptop days, that is, days during which it actually makes sense for me to tote such a device around.
Posted by Martin R at 5:42 AM • 3 Comments •
November 16, 2009
Category: Books
Dan Simmons published a wonderful, galaxy-spanning, mind-blowing sf novel in 1989: Hyperion. Then he followed it up with three more novels of which I have read two. They're OK, but not as good as the first book. Science fiction is...
Posted by Martin R at 8:21 AM • 23 Comments •
Category: Tech
On Tuesday 17 November 17:30 I'm giving a talk as part of Mathias Klang's information security course at the University of Gothenburg. The theme is "Årtusendenas glömska: arkivsäkring i det riktigt långa perspektivet", which may hint to the intelligent...
Posted by Martin R at 8:00 AM • 4 Comments •
November 14, 2009
Category: Tech
Hear me, Ubuntu-using brothers and sisters! Never use the on-line upgrade option to switch to a newer version of the operating system! In little more than two years, it has trashed my setup twice, once killing the machine outright, and...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 42 Comments •
November 13, 2009
Category: Archaeology
So you're a metal detectorist and you find a silver figurine at storied Lejre in Denmark. It depicts a person sitting in a high seat whose posts end in two wolves' heads. And on either arm rest sits a...
Posted by Martin R at 3:34 PM • 47 Comments •
November 12, 2009
Category: Archaeology
Aard enjoys complimentary subscriptions to a number of popular archaeology magazines from which I learn a lot before passing them on to the Fisksätra public library. Here are my favourite stories from three recent issues that have crossed my current-reading...
Posted by Martin R at 2:35 PM • 4 Comments •
November 11, 2009
Category: Humour
One of the best friends I made during my decade in the Tolkien Society is Florence Vilén; poet, novelist, connoisseuse of art and letters. She recently published a volume of poetry, Purpurpränt. Dikter med rim och reson. And earlier tonight...
Posted by Martin R at 3:26 PM • 0 Comments •
November 10, 2009
Category: Archaeology
My blog readers have had news of the site as it appeared, pretty much in real time. But now it's time to put up a new signpost next to Christer's barn.
Posted by Martin R at 4:52 PM • 1 Comments •
November 9, 2009
Category: Archaeology
In addition to the archive reports on my two seasons of fieldwork at the Late Medieval and Early Modern harbour of Djurhamn, I have now published a paper that discusses and interprets the results.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 8 Comments •
November 6, 2009
Category: Archaeology
The seventy-ninth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Anthropology.net. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! Submissions for the next carnival will be sent to Colleen at Middle Savagery. All bloggers with an interest in the...
Posted by Martin R at 9:56 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
I am not the first Rundkvist in Swedish archaeology.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 4 Comments •
November 4, 2009
Category: Health
My family and I just came home from our local vårdcentral, the public medical centre, where we've taken our shots for epidemic H1N1/09 swine flu. It cost us nothing and we waited for only about 15 minutes. We got something...
Posted by Martin R at 10:57 AM • 11 Comments •
November 3, 2009
Category: Archaeology
If you look at pebbles on an undisturbed 3000-y-o cairn, you find heavy microweathering on the upper half of the stones. Their lower halves are far less weathered.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 4 Comments •
November 2, 2009
Category: Archaeology
Runologist James E. Knirk has published a report on the recently found Hogganvik rune stone. His transliteration is[?]kelbaþewas:s(t)^ainaR:aaasrpkf aarpaa:inanana(l/b/w)oR eknaudigastiR ekerafaRHis translation isSkelba-þewaR's ["Shaking-servant's"] stone. (Alphabet magic: aaasrpkf aarpaa). ?Within/From within the ?wheel-nave/?cabin-corner. I NaudigastiR [="Need-guest"]. I, the Wolverine.So...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 11 Comments •
November 1, 2009
Category: NOIBN
If I had to take a paper newspaper, then I would like Dagens Nyheter's news section, Svenska Dagbladet's arts & entertainment section, no sports section and no business section. SvD is a conservative rag and some of its political columnists...
Posted by Martin R at 4:11 PM • 14 Comments •
